The present invention relates generally to a toy airplane engine driven by high pressure gas, and more particularly to an automatic starting device and an idling clutch for the propeller of the toy airplane engine.
The conventional toy airplane engines are generally propelled by the expansion force resulting from the gasification of the liquid carbon dioxide, or by the expansion force of the compressed air. The conventional toy airplane engines described above are defective in design in that their propellers may turn in reverse at such time when they are started by turning their propellers with the finger, which is vulnerable to injury by the propellers in motion. In addition, such conventional toy airplane engines are devoid of an idling clutch for propeller to afford the conventional toy airplanes the free flight which takes place without propulsion.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a toy engine free from the shortcomings of the conventional toy engines described above.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a toy engine with an automatic start control and a clutch, which are integral parts of the structure of the present invention.
The starting device of the present invention is formed of a spring and a starting piece, which are mounted on the front end of the bearing of the engine propeller, and a unidirectional bevel gear mounted behind the engine propeller. The motion of the spring between the two fulcrums serves to ensure that the control rod is kept securely in place at a disengaging position and an engaging position. The unidirectional bevel gear is controlled by the starting piece to prevent the propeller from turning in reverse at the time when the engine is started. The clutch is formed of two clutching pieces which are mounted between the propeller and the engine head. One of the two clutching pieces is mounted on one end of the propeller shaft for imparting the engine power. Other one of the two clutching pieces is mounted in front of the propeller. The two clutching pieces are symmetrical in construction to each other and are therefore capable of joining together to enable the propeller shaft to actuate the propeller to turn. The clutching mechanism of the two clutching pieces enables the engine propeller to remain in the idling state, thereby resulting in the conservation of power source during the flight of the toy airplane.
The starting device of the present invention is optionally provided with an auxiliary device which is intended to prevent the starting piece from re-engaging the bevel gear in high speed motion after the starting piece has disengaged the bevel gear and has not yet stabilized, thereby averting an inevitable damage to the structure of the toy engine.
The foregoing objectives, features, functions, and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood upon a thoughtful deliberation of the following detailed description of the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.